Clubs Queensland

Clubs Queensland is the peak industry body and union of employers for registered and licensed community clubs in Queensland. They represent the interests of approximately 1100 community clubs throughout the state, including sporting, RSL and ex-services, golf, bowls and surf life saving clubs, which have 2.4 million members and support 22,000 employees between them.

The team of 18 staff provide essential support for member clubs, including providing a public voice for media and community campaigns, ongoing government lobbying, events, training, industrial relations and policy advice, and general communications services.

Clubs Queensland’s mission is to strive to ensure all community clubs remain viable, competitive and relevant now and into the future.

The challenge:

Part of Clubs Queensland’s responsibilities is providing connections and up-to-date resources for their members in the areas of education, government representation, training, hospitality and gaming. They are, therefore, communicating with their members on a highly frequent basis.

While they do endeavour to use electronic methods of distribution, such as email, wherever possible, member preference still strongly favours printed material as the primary means of communication. Clubs Queensland, therefore, have a heavy dependence on print-based material.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) with their current printing vendor, however, was going through the roof. “When we did the math on our copy costs with our previous vendor’s equipment, it was averaging around 20 cents per copy,” said Clubs Queensland CEO, Doug Flockhart.

“We were spending an enormous amount of money, both on maintaining the equipment and the ongoing daily cost to meet our copying requirements.”

The solution:

Kyocera was first recommended to Doug by his accountant more than 10 years ago. The Kyocera printer that the accountant had had installed at his business had never broken down, and he spoke favourably about its reliability and low TCO.

“This recommendation to use Kyocera stuck with me, so when our agreement expired with our incumbent vendor in 2008, I took the opportunity to introduce Kyocera equipment into Clubs Queensland,” says Doug.

After a careful assessment of Clubs Queensland’s needs and budget, Kyocera recommended a multifunctional device (MFD) that would dramatically lower their TCO while also lowering the environmental impact of their printing.

The results:

Needless to say, the MFD exceeded their expectations. “The machine paid for itself via copy cost savings in just six months, and service calls have been minimal,” says Doug. “We were so happy with the first MFD that we’ve just purchased a second, larger machine.”

The second machine that they purchased was the Kyocera TASKalfa 7550ci, a high-speed colour device delivering speeds of 75 pages per minute. This MFD also boasts Kyocera’s unique long-life technology, ensuring lowered running and printing costs.

"While forecasting the payback to be a bit longer, due to capital cost, we still believe we will recoup the capital cost in just 18 months, again via the operational savings made. This is a great result for us,” says Doug.

Doug has also been impressed by the low environmental impact of the devices, and feels confident that Clubs Queensland are now ‘practising what they preach’ in terms of sustainability.

“From an ecological perspective, I strongly believe all of us are responsible for leaving the planet in a good state for the people of tomorrow,” says Doug. “Anything that helps us to do that, like choosing the right equipment such as Kyocera’s, is a good thing and something we should all consider.”